Islamic financial services industry: Aspirations and achievements

Islamic Financial Services Industry (IFSI) crosses the age of 40 years, and sufficient empirical evidence exists to evaluate in light of the distinctive aspirations. This study fills the gap in the literature by evaluating the performance of IFSI in light of Islamic finance objectives—financial stability, equitable distribution of wealth and social responsibility; Shari’ah principles, and professional practices. Our investigation documents the achievements based on real accounting data from 23 countries, and the suitability of tools in practice to achieve the stated objectives by promotors of IFSI. Findings suggest that the objectives of IFSI have been achieved to an extent. However, visible contribution to the achievement of socio-economic justice is yet to emerge. Practical application of tools shows divergence (in spirit) from the original design, primarily to achieve integration and coherence with the prevailing conventional financial system. IFSI needs collaborative efforts to overcome the challenges at hand.     

Cyclicality of bank credit growth: Conventional vs Islamic banks in the GCC

Using a panel of 104 banks from the six Gulf Council Countries, we investigate the cyclicality of credit growth with regard to the discrepancies between Islamic banks and conventional banks. We found that Islamic banks are pro-cyclical and have higher credit growth compared to conventional banks. Indeed, the Profit and Loss Sharing (PLS) mechanism helps Islamic banks not to curb their credit growth during adverse economic conditions. We tested the role of the growth rate of market sentiment and found that positive market sentiment leads to higher bank credit growth. Furthermore, we investigate the impact of several bank-specific variables on bank credit growth and discuss to what extent diversification and the investment portfolio reshape the credit growth process.     

When e-commerce becomes more human by transposing the hospitality concept to merchant websites

This research mobilizes the concept of hospitality, which is strongly anchored in human values, in the field of e-commerce. It demonstrates the relevance of drawing on the concept of hospitality in the context of e-commerce as well as how to do so. Based on a quantitative study of a sample of French consumers (n = 215), this research also shows how the hospitality of a commercial website impact the emotional reactions with positive and negative valence and the approach/avoidance behaviors towards the website.     

Small business— small minded? Training attitudes and needs of the tourism and hospitality industry

The Australian tourism and hospitality industry consists of at least 80% small business operators scattered over a wide range of urban and rural environments, consequently it has not been easy for training providers to assess accurately the needs of the industry as a whole and provide specialised programmes. During 1996, Tourism Training Victoria conducted a survey of training needs of tourism and hospitality operators. Results indicate that there is a shortage of skilled staff and owner‐managers with little management training or qualifications, who nonetheless recognise their shortcomings and needs for further education and training, particularly in the marketing and business areas. Barriers to further training include the cost of training and inflexibility of hours and place of delivery. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Favoring the small and the plenty: Islamic banking for MSMEs

While MSMEs form the backbone of many countries, most of them suffer from limited access to finance. We extend the literature by examining whether Islamic banks, compared to their conventional peers, favor more the MSMEs credit market segment in Turkey. We do this by considering various aspects of the lending behavior towards MSMEs (total lending, foreign currency lending, loan commitments, loan quality, and revenues) across different MSMEs size categories (micro, small and medium-sized firms). Our results show that once we control for bank-specific characteristics, we find that Islamic banks are more engaged with MSME financing and generate more revenues from servicing MSMEs. Concerning the quality of the MSME lending portfolio, no distinguishable patterns were observed between Islamic and conventional banks.     

Examination of the impacts of the immediate interest rate of the United States and the VIX on the Dow Jones Islamic Market Index

This study examines the effects of the market volatility index of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (VIX) and the immediate interest rate of the United States on the Dow Jones Islamic Market Index (DJIMI) using quantile-based techniques and wavelet coherence (WTC) analysis with monthly data for the period January 2010to May 2021. A quantile cointegration model indicated that the relationship between the VIX and the DJIMI can be valid in the long term since the estimated coefficients are negative and statistically significant across the quantiles 0.05 and 0.50, while a quantile autoregressive model revealed that large negative and positive changes in the VIX and the immediate interest rate of the United States do not have a significant impact on the DJIMI in the short term. Allowing the role of regime changes, it was found by the quantile regression model that an increase in the VIX lowers the performance in the DJIMI, supported by the WTC. It was also underlined that the DJIMI may not benefit from the positive financial conditions. According to the quantile regression models, the immediate interest rate of the US has asymmetrical effects, and the stabilizing effect of the increase/decrease is valid during bearish/bullish market conditions in the DJIMI.     

Dependence dynamics of Islamic and conventional equity sectors: What do we learn from the decoupling hypothesis and COVID-19 pandemic?

The recent COVID-19 pandemic intensification generates a different set of challenges for global financial markets and portfolio management strategies. This paper uses network analysis to investigate the static and dynamic dependence within Islamic and conventional equity sectors. The study focuses on the decoupling hypothesis and how the dependence among sectors changes during COVID19. Empirical findings indicate a higher degree of spillover during the COVID19 sub-period. Islamic and conventional equities behave differently in terms of industry-level dependence during normal and crisis times, thus decoupling. Further, the dependence effect between conventional equity returns is stronger than Islamic equity returns during the COVID-19 pandemic. The finding of this paper has several significant implications for portfolio selection and risk management. Portfolios consisting of Islamic equity sectors including industrials, basic materials, consumer services, and technologies highlight low-diversification benefits across the entire sample period. Also, investment exposure to less connected Islamic and conventional equity sectors provides a good diversification strategy.     

Measuring the quality of hospitality at Antalya

Tourism has become an important pillar of the Turkish economy. Therefore, service quality of the catering sector deserves and attracts attention. This paper employs data envelopment analysis (DEA), a linear programming method, to gauge the validity of official quality ratings at Antalya, a major seaside resort. This benchmarking‐based technique is applied to standardise the ‘starring’ system used by regulators and rating agencies. This is done by using efficiency scores generated by the DEA technique. Such standardisation helps tourists and tour operators. In addition, a second‐stage Tobit regression identifies the causes of inefficiency, and the managerial implications of the findings are discussed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hospitality research: a pause for reflection

Over recent decades hospitality research has made considerable advancements and contributions to knowledge creation. However, a review of associated literature reveals that there exists a significant degree of debate concerning the definitional, philosophical and conceptual dimensions of hospitality. This paper aims to capture current thinking and key challenges confronting the research community. Conclusions are drawn calling for: definitional precision of hospitality; a clearly articulated research philosophy locating hospitality as a specialist field of study within the social science landscape; an enhanced degree of research philosophy awareness by researchers; and the benefits of formulating and agreeing an internally valid conceptual framework. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.